Yikes, shrikes! Cute little bird is an efficient predator

About the size of a robin, loggerhead shrikes have beaks that are notched like a falcon's for dealing with prey.

Carl Hart/Special to The Commercial Appeal

Of the 9,995 bird species in the world, about two-thirds are songbirds.

Most feed on fruit, seeds or small invertebrates, while a few prefer pollen or nectar.

But there is one family that has adopted the diet and habits of birds of prey, catching and eating small mammals, lizards, amphibians and even smaller birds, as well as insects and spiders.

There are about 70 species of shrike, most of which live in the Eastern hemisphere.

The loggerhead shrike is about the size of a robin. It gets its name from its head, which seems overlarge for its body.

It is mostly gray, darker above and lighter below. Its wings are black with white patches that flash when it flies. The tail is black with white outer feathers. Its throat is white, below a prominent black mask. Its legs and feet are large and black.

Its bill is broad but short and the upper mandible ends in a sharp hook. It is notched like a falcon's, enabling the bird to dispatch its prey with a bite to the neck. The sexes are alike, but the male is a little larger.

Not only do they catch and kill small vertebrates, tearing them apart with strong hooked beaks, but they often also impale them on thorns or barbed wire.

Loggerhead shrikes breed from Virginia to central California, north into the prairie provinces of central Canada and south to central Mexico. The Great Plains population migrates south in winter. It can be found year-round in the Mid-South, but is considered "uncommon" in Shelby County.

Although some tropical shrikes are renowned as songsters, loggerhead shrikes are definitely not much for vocalization. While they do sometimes produce a few musical notes, their songs are described as "mostly rasping, harsh shrieks, unmelodious call notes, sharp clicks and weak peeps."

In the Mid-South, nesting begins in late March. The male bird feeds the female to establish the pair bond. Red cedar trees are by far the preferred nest site.

Five or six white or buff spotted eggs are usually laid. The female incubates and is fed by the male. Incubation lasts about 17 days. Both parents feed the young birds, which fledge in about 19 days. They are dependent on their parents for another four weeks.

A hunting loggerhead shrike sits on an exposed perch, such as a bare limb, fence wire or power line. Occasionally, it will hover like a kestrel. When it spots prey below, it power dives onto it, grasping with its feet and killing with a bite to the nape.

Like many other grassland and open-country species, the loggerhead shrike has experienced major population decline in the last half-century.

Pesticides had a major effect, and so did changes in farming practices. Hedgerows where the shrike nested and hunted were bulldozed, and former pastureland was converted to row crops or residential or commercial development.

The predatory, if not downright gruesome, feeding habits of the loggerhead shrike may not appeal to the squeamish bird lover, but there is no doubt that it is a fascinating species.